Why teach?

Why Do Teachers Teach?

Why teach?  I can give you many reasons why not to teach.  Long hours, low pay, little respect and no upward mobility to speak of are a few of the more common reasons.  If you want to advance in your profession your best option is to leave the classroom, to stop teaching and become an administrator or a consultant.  The testing era has politicians, most of whom know very little about teaching, calling for reform, which to most sounds like they don’t think teachers are doing a good job.  Kids are failing, have been failing for decades and teachers are usually blamed.  Parents love their kids so much that unconditional love often translates to, "my kid is right and you are wrong."  Some parents don’t have the capacity to love their kids enough and the kids try to find belonging elsewhere.  They act out and it’s your fault.  So, why teach? I asked a few friends why they teach.  Here are their responses:

-          I teach because I learn more from kids than I do anyone else.  And the biggest lesson that I have learned from children is to never give up- on them or yourself. Accept them and be proud of them, it makes a big difference.

-          I teach to make a difference. Educational inequality is real. One way I can personally combat this is by teaching and offering my students a quality education

-          I love seeing students grow from reluctant learners to those that want to explore all that is around them

Maybe we don’t give children enough credit for transforming an otherwise fractured education system into something that is among the most rewarding of all professions.  With all that the system has done to stack the deck against the love of profession, people still teach.  Thanks be to the children that remind us why we teach.